Geniza Lab

State document, Fatimid period. Mentioned in S. M. Stern, "Cairo as a Centre of the Ismaili Movement."

Letter in Arabic script. Reused for accounts in Arabic script. The letter seems to mainly deal with business matters. The sender may be named Bū Naṣr. Needs examination.

Legal document, dated A.H. 569 (= 1173-74 C.E.). - needs examination.

Letter from Ibn Abū l-Faraj to al-Shaykh al-Thiqa, in the Muṣāsa area of Fustat. In Arabic script. Needs examination.

Letter in Arabic script from a blind man, Barakāt al-Jiblī, to the man with whom his son Ḥassūn lives, Sābiq al-Kohen b. Maḥfūẓ, dictated to Yaʿqūb, the cousin (ibn ʿamm) of the addressee. The purpose of the letter is to rebuke Sābiq: "I think of you what I think of my son Ḥassūn, namely, that I have written him many letters and not received a single response. All this time he has not thought of me or inquired about my health (iftaqad ḥālī) at all. His mother passed away one year ago with a great fire (or: grief) in her heart on his account. I am an old man, and I have lost my vision and ceased earning a living." In the remainder of the letter he beseeches Sābiq to respond and to urge his son to behave properly and remember his father. Information in part from Goitein's note card and Med Soc, V, p. 124, n. 423. ASE

Note (ruqʿa) reminding recipient to fulfil his promise (of which no details are provided). On verso there is another text block in Arabic script as well as a rhymed Hebrew poem about the buying, stuffing, and marinating in wine of the greatest chicken in all the land. See Khan, Documents, p. 316 (note 48). (Information from Baker/Polliack catalog)

Accounts in Arabic script, including merchandise from India. (Information from Baker/Polliack catalog.)

The two leaves do not belong together. P1: page from an anatomical work, describing the upper and lower limbs and their functions. P2: private letter in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL)

State document: On verso, titulature in calligraphic script, including al-khilāfa al-fāṭimiyya, which is rare (maybe hapax) in documentary texts.

Fiscal account to do with sugarcane and a sugar-house. Some to go as taxes to tax-farmers, some to be planted. Three lines at the top: a docket?

Tadhkira (memorandum) from a Fatimid official to another Fatimid official. Tax receipt on verso.

Legal note. About money taken from a tailor. Dating: No earlier than 1425 CE, based on the use of the ashrafī.

Recto: Legal document in Arabic script. Opens, "Aqarra al-muʿallim Ibrāhīm b. ʿAfīf b. Sulaymān al-Yahūdī al-qaṭan(?)...." Verso: Legal document in Arabic script. Opens, "Aḥāla l-muaʿallim faṣīl..." Information from Baker/Polliack catalog via FGP.

Copies of extremely deferent letters, in a mixture of Hebrew, Judaeo-Arabic, and Arabic script. Written on a bifolium. Specific addressees named include Moshe ha-Sar, Hillel ha-Sar, and Abū Saʿd. Join by Amir Ashur.

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic script. Parts of five lines are preserved along with some of the margin and some mirror-text imprinted by the lines that used to be below. On verso there is a Talmudic discussion of usury. Needs examination.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. On verso there is an unidentified text in Hebrew. Needs examination.

Recto: Letter or petition from Bū Saʿīd. Written in Arabic script. On verso there are several lines in Judaeo-Arabic, it seems about the woman with the seven martyred sons.

Document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Small fragment. Containing the remnants of three lines in calligraphic Arabic script. On verso there is literary text in Hebrew.

Document in calligraphic Arabic script. On verso there are some lines in Hebrew as well.